The Pied Piper of Danville
by breather89
Summary: Doof has a new In-Ator. Unfortunately, it draws energy out from children, so Doof has to kidnap children and extract their happiness and liveliness over the Christmas vacation. Vanessa is fiercely against this but she seems to notice that Doof isn't entirely himself, even beginning to hurt her. Can she and her friends stop him before it gets too late?
1. Chapter 1

Pied Piper of Danville

Doof was grumbling to himself in the basement. "Vanessa's come over for Christmas and I end up having to get her bed up a whole day earlier. It's not as if I have a lot on my mind already, trying to get my Extract-Inator to work and devising another trap for Perry the Platypus -"

He heard a rumbling behind him, causing him to drop the bed. Luckily, it missed his foot. He looked behind him, startled. "What? What is it?" he asked, before his eyes opened wide with horror.

Three days before Christmas, Vanessa had come to her dad's place. Her mother was working abroad this year and had dumped her at the mad scientist's building. _Great_ , Vanessa thought _, I'm going to spend my vacation surrounded by weird inventions, stupid schemes and Perry the Platypus. Not that's he's bad_ , she told herself.

Vanessa had come in to find her dad's lab was a little less crowded than usual. She saw he had come back from flying wherever he had fancied and had baggage in the back.

"So, Vanessa, you want to get a drink or something? Because I'm going to be here a long time." He told her, as he floated slowly down.

Vanessa peered in the back. She noticed the tin trunk, cello case, huge cardboard box, a wooden trunk, a heavy duty duffle bag, a few bundles of straw, some mechanical gears and knobs, a chair from a barber's shop and sets of manacles.

"I'm – not even going to ask about what it is you're doing, Dad," she said as she went to the kitchen, "have fun playing with Perry."

"Actually, Perry the Platypus will be taken care of," Doof told her as she reached the door, "this plan is one of ingenious cunning."

Vanessa sighed and rolled her eyes, turning around and sitting down as her father told her everything.

"My new Inator will extract energy. Energy from happiness and joy, which is all around for this Christmas season. You see, Vanessa, I was sitting down wondering why is it that my brother is so great? What is it that Roger has that I _don't_ have?"

"Would you like the short list or the long one?" Norm piped up.

Doof shot a furious glare at him, before he turned back to Vanessa. "He has the energy to be happy and can go everywhere and do everything. _I_ will extract energy to make myself more likeable and cheerful. Then I can become ruler of the Tri-State Area!" he shouted out loud. Vanessa just raised a bemused eyebrow.

"OK, Dad, see you later. I'll be in my room," she smiled.

Doof looked at Norm as soon as the door shut, "She doesn't respect me, does she? Well, she'll learn. Problem is, Norm," he explained as he walked over to the big pile of metal that was his half-finished Inator, "that this only extracts energy from _people_. Not animals, not plants, not platypuses. Or is it platypi? It's all very confusing, with the 's's and the I and – it's even hard for a native English speaker. Anyway – Norm, the main problem is that adults will be easy to fight. If you extract happy, joyful energy from a _child_ , they are unlikely to fight you. And children have happier energy inside, before their lives are ruined by taxes and politics and technology. What's wrong with the cup-and-ball I had in Gimmelstump, huh? Before Roger stole it, anyway…"

The Christmas season was already here and the boys were up playing with their new toys. Of course, they couldn't actually tell their parents they were planning to build a giant swing, like their rollercoaster from two summers ago, but now they had the tools for it. Ferb even had a new toolbox.

They'd had to stay in a lot this vacation, though. Linda didn't explain much to them, but she said something about a kid going missing overnight from another town in the Tri-State area. The kid, a small, sad girl called Caroline Goodwin, aged a few years younger than Phineas, had been found early the next day, before her parents even noticed her missing, on the outskirts of town. She'd been alive, but that was all the police knew.

Linda had been a bit nervous though, causing her to lock every window in the house and every door. It had made Perry very grouchy for some reason and he spent most of his days clambering over everything in the house, trying to punch the walls and floors. If Linda didn't know any better, he was trying to escape.

Then other disappearances had been happening. Ruth Spencer aged eight, from the next town over. John Hawley aged ten, from the same street as the Danville library. Mark Frost aged eleven, only a year younger than Phineas, from three blocks away.

Linda had, of course, panicked inside.

Candace was nineteen and old enough to go out by herself and Ferb was now fourteen, possibly too old for whoever was doing this. But one victim, Peter Dawson, had only been a few months older than Phineas, and that meant Linda was in a state about whether their friends should all come over, as they had done over the last two summers. She didn't want to be responsible for someone else's kid going missing.

Then again, she told herself as she made herself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, that Buford is too muscly for anyone to try and attack him. Especially since he took up boxing. And Baljeet always walked with him and anyway, he lived just down the block. And Isabella's mom dropped her off every day for the last week when she needed to go to work. On top of that, Linda told herself, there was always safety in numbers.

Candace had just finished talking to Stacy on the phone when the news came up.

The twelfth missing child had just been found alive. A girl named Laura Grover aged eleven. Two children were still missing and it seemed as if this strange cycle was going on.

Candace hadn't spent much time listening (that was focusing on busting, Jeremy and hanging with Stacy of course) but she did know that some children had gone missing over the last week.

The children would be in their gardens alone or in their bedrooms and be snatched, vanishing into thin air as if by aliens. Maybe it had been aliens, since the kids were all found alive and within a few miles of their home.

All were dizzy, with slurred speech and wide eyes. Only two had been released to their homes. The children were all a lot younger than Candace, but as her mom had said, one was Phineas' age. The youngest child had been Elizabeth Harper, age six.

As far as Candace or anyone else knew, all the children had been found alive, but traumatized by what occurred. The news said Laura had been found in a better condition than most of the others, in the park a few blocks away from here. She had been talking coherently for one. For another, she had a coat on. One that she hadn't managed to get before her abduction.

Candace felt herself get up and walk to her mom in the kitchen. "Mom?" she asked, "W-Where did the last attack take place?"

Linda looked up from the dishes she was washing and pulled her daughter close. "Oh, honey," she stroked her hair, "it was five blocks away. In a different direction from last time."  
"So – my brothers might be OK?" Candace asked her.

Linda shrugged and pulled away, back to the dishes. "I don't know, darling. I don't know."

"But – they're never alone in the back yard, are they?" Candace asked, fearful. "Their friends are always round and I always keep an eye on them," _But not for the same reasons_ , she thought to herself, "and they never leave the house."

Linda sighed, "I'm doing the best I can do. What every parent's doing."

Candace smiled slightly and started walking back to the living room. "Oh, one more question," she started, peering over her shoulder at Linda, "when the kids were gone, nobody – nobody played with them, did they?"

Linda shook her head. "Police said there's no evidence." Not that this was much of a relief for the two of them. Or anybody involved, for that matter.

Candace sat down on the couch and picked up Lawrence's newspaper. The pictures of the kids were there. Smiling and cheerful. Nearly all of them had been from their yearbook. Candace traced her fingers over Caroline Goodwin, Simon Baxter, Ruth Spencer, Peter Dawson, John Hawley, Elizabeth Harper, Mark Frost, Ella Sinclair, Andrew Webster, Shelia Crawford-Foster and James Jennings. It had been yesterday's and Laura hadn't been on there yet.

The last two children had been abducted this morning, both from back gardens in two different places in the Tri-State Area. Eight-year-old Lewis Parson and twelve-year-old Miriam Richardson, both taken from another state. Maybe this guy was going to leave Danville alone. Maybe he wouldn't get her brothers.

Now, Vanessa had not taken her dad's plan well.

Actually, that was quite an understatement. She had been positively horrified. She had come in yesterday to ask him where he had stored the coffee. He'd recently been barking at her and Norm to knock before they came in and he only peeked through the side of the door to slightly to snatch whatever food he had made Vanessa get him. She had heard him shouting at something and thought she heard animal noises. She didn't want to dare go inside.

But now, she hadn't knocked and she found him standing over his Inator with a demented grin.

"Oh, sorry Dad," she began, with one hand around the doorknob, but then she saw what he had been doing.

She saw three children slumped by the wall. Two girls and a boy. Two were in pyjamas, but one girl was in a coat and wellingtons. They were all pale and thin. Their hands were manacled to the wall and were lying on straw. The children were all wide-eyed and shivering.

"Dad!" Vanessa had shouted, before letting off steam, including a few choice words.

Then Doof stormed up and slapped her across the face.

Vanessa fell to the floor and he grabbed her wrist. "You listen, you stupid little girl," he hissed, dragging her over to the wall, "you make sure these kids are alive and healthy while I go get supplies. These kids are draining my fridge."

Vanessa was too shocked to say anything. She glanced into his shiny eyes as she knelt down by the nearest girl. Something about her dad seemed different. Or maybe that was just because he slapped her.

 _He – slapped – her._

Even though Vanessa had experienced it herself, she never thought that he would ever hurt her. Then again, he had clearly lost it. He was keeping children locked up in his lab. Was he behind the disappearances that had been all over the Tri-State area?

She put her arm around the girl, but she shuffled back against the wall, terrified.

"Hey, hey," Vanessa was trying to calm her, "it's fine. I won't hurt you, kay? I won't harm you." Then she took a good look at the girl properly. "Did my dad cut your hair?"

The three children were nearly bald, with tiny pricks of blonde and black to show where they used to have hair. The younger girl whispered, "The pharma – pharmacist said hair clogged his machine. It stands on end."

Vanessa knew she had to try and ease them. She started by placing a hand on her chest. "My name's Vanessa. What's yours?"

"Shelia," the girl gave a chortled whisper, "I'm seven."

"James," the boy replied, "I'm nine."

"Laura," the other girl answered, her eyes halfway through opening and closing, as if she had just woken up and was trying to move, "I'm eleven."

Vanessa looked at her pyjamas. They seemed soaked and her dad hadn't kept the heating on. "You must be freezing," she said as she pulled her coat off and placed it over the girl's shoulder, "has my dad kept the heating off the whole time?"

"He said it wouldn't work." James said.

Vanessa wanted to look around for the keys but she thought that maybe Dad would react even more if he found she had released his hostages. Instead she wondered how to get a message to Perry. It was the only thing she could think of. The organization had to have a camera or something somewhere, since they always seemed to know what Dad was doing.

But forty-five minutes later she hadn't found anything else. Doof then threw open the door and strode in, dumping a paper sack of groceries on the couch.

"What are you doing, snooping about?" he called, grabbing both of Vanessa's wrists.

"Dad," she frowned at him "you've been crazy. I don't think L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N allows this type of villainy. You told me you had to sign a contract to make all your schemes child-friendly."

But Doof ignored her. Shoving her over to the wall, he pushed her down by her shoulders and then slammed the sole remaining manacle onto her wrist.

"Let me go!" she shouted at him, but he scoffed.

"If I can't keep you out of trouble, Vanessa Marissa Doofenshmirtz, then you'd better stay somewhere where I can keep an eye on you." He replied coolly. He then unlocked the chains around Shelia and James and carried them onto his craft on the balcony. They were so weak that they didn't try to fight.

"I'm going to drop them off and snatch two more. Be good, Vanessa."

When he left, Vanessa pulled against the chain and groaned in frustration. Then she stopped, as she thought.

Marissa wasn't her middle name, it was Mary.

Did this mean there was a reason he had gone insane?


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

The boys were in the back garden, lying against the tree, with Perry settled beside them. Unlike their last two summers, they were instead on a picnic blanket from the garage and wore thick duffel coats.

Ferb was reading his new booklet that came with his toolbox and Phineas was thinking about what to make. A parade of dancing snowmen? Maybe, if they had enough time. Isabella wanted a Nutcracker show, since she couldn't go to the ballet when the tickets ran out.

"Ferb, I don't normally ask this, but what do you want to do today?" Phineas asked his brother. Ferb looked up from his booklet, very surprised.

"It's just," Phineas started to say, "we haven't actually had much time this vacation. It rained yesterday and Mom's getting panicky about those kids disappearing – well, maybe we could just do things in the back garden."

Then the gate opened. "Hey Phineas," Isabella chirped, "watchya doing?"

Phineas mumbled, "Not much." Isabella's smile faded and she asked, "Then why are we coming round every day?"

"Isabella –" Phineas began, but Isabella quickly said back, "Oh, not that it's your fault, Phineas. But I was actually looking forward to doing a Nutcracker show."

"Not the Nutcracker I was imagining," Buford's voice came from the fence, as he and Baljeet walked in, "but I'd be happy to cause any damage if necessary."

"That is not what they mean," Baljeet told his frienemy, "it's that there haven't been many opportunities with all the disappearances."

He sighed. "My mother did not want me to come over. But when I said that Buford would be taking me here –" Buford made a grunting noise, "- she was happy to let me visit. Anyway, what are we to do when so many terrible things are happening? Our inventions often stray outside of the back yard."

"Well, no use moping over something," Phineas stood up, "let's build a Nutcracker!"

As the group started walking indoors for the tools, Buford remarked, "I'd still prefer it if we did my version."

Vanessa was now absolutely livid. If she hadn't been before, she was simply stunned at how callous Doof had been.

There were two more children chained to the wall, a boy and a girl. Doof had snatched both of them that night and had forced them into his Inator. He'd ordered Vanessa – and honestly, she was too scared to say otherwise – to shave their hair off and strap them in one at a time.

Then her dad had extracted the liveliness from them.

When he had finished, the two children were quivering and sobbing. They didn't dare fight back and he easily forced them to the manacles and locked them in place.

He didn't chain Vanessa up again, but she didn't want to anger him any more just in case.

After he'd put the girl through the Inator again (and was now cowering by the wall with her back to Doof) Vanessa walked up to him as he was tightening screws on the helmet.

Vanessa closed her eyes, clenched her fists and exhaled a deep breath. She had to convince him. She could do this.

"Dad, I don't like what you're doing," she spoke firmly to him, "but if you have to take energy, take it from me." She would much rather have been hung, drawn and quartered, but if it meant saving children the same, horrible torment, it would be worth it.

But instead Doof raised an eyebrow, confused. He folded his arms and then gave her a nasty smirk. "Not needed, Vanessa. I'm saving you for later."

Vanessa had no idea what he meant by that, but she felt as if she might be sick. Even so, she replied, "Let the kids go and take my energy. I'm an adult – surely I'd have more energy?"  
Doof shook his head, still smiling horribly.

"Dear Vanessa," he told her, grabbing her by the wrist, "your energy has been sapped by the worries of being grown up. If I took your energy, you'd only give half as much as a preteen. You're growing up so fast, honey, and if I used you, I'd be a rotten father, wouldn't I? I'm not as cruel as to abuse my own flesh and blood."

She pulled away from him sharply and glared back at him. Looking into those eyes, she felt a shiver go down her spine.

It was as if it wasn't Doof at all. It was as if he had been replaced.

His eye twitched slightly as he sneered at her. She turned around, before carefully walking out of the laboratory.

She would have to try some other way.

Doof went back to his work and then looked at the scales. He didn't need many more children. These two had already been squeezed like lemons and if he took any more, he'd end up killing them. That would not look good on his squeaky-clean record.

Hah. _His_ squeaky-clean record.

He sniggered to himself at his private joke and then back at the two children. "OK kids," he told them as they grabbed each other, "time to go."

Unlocking the chains, the two children barely reacted when he lifted them up and placed them inside his cello case and wooden trunk. He'd drilled holes inside, he wasn't _completely_ wicked. He then started flying off back over Danville.

Phineas and Ferb left the garage first, with Ferb's toolbox and some blueprints. Isabella, Buford and Baljeet were trying to decide what colour everything should be. Well, Isabella had decided on pink. The boys were arguing over Buford's idea of a nutcracker.

"Just need to set the stage up here," Phineas said as he placed a blueprint on the ground. Ferb stood next to him.

Linda and Lawrence had gone out with Isabella's mother to a meeting at the town hall about safety for their children. Candace had been told to watch them and call if there was a problem.

"An actual problem, not some silly thing the boys are doing." Linda had sternly told her daughter before she left.

Candace was talking to Stacy on the phone as she stared out of the back window at her brothers. She'd simply have to watch whatever they were doing. No chance telling Mom.

"Yes, Stacy," she groaned, "it's not fair on me."

Stacy just rolled her eyes and told Candace, "I have to go. I need to watch the Fireside Girls meeting. They've got about three extra staff members due to all these abductions. It's not actually reassuring us, despite their intentions. I know what they're doing, though."

Candace flipped her phone shut and inwardly sighed.

The sooner the police caught the weirdo who was behind this, the sooner she could go back to busting Phineas and Ferb, without having to worry about them.

Doof was flying overhead when he noticed.

Two children in the back garden, building something. One looked perhaps a little old for his plan, but the other seemed the right age. No matter, he'd take the kid as a witness, anyway.

He threw down the purple smoke bomb at the snowy ground and zoomed.

Phineas first noticed when his vision was obscured by purple smoke. Coughing loudly, he squeezed his eyes shut and fumbled on the ground towards the living room. "Ferb?" he asked with a cough, "Ferb?"

Then he felt himself being lifted up off of his feet. Phineas panicked and tried to scream, but a hand clamped tight over his mouth. The boy started kicking and struggling, but whoever was holding him wouldn't let go.

Phineas then heard a zipping noise from below him and was thrown down. As the smoke cleared from his eyes, he saw that he was inside something soft. Kicking out, he noticed that he had been stuffed inside a duffel bag.

"Ferb?" he called out again, more cautious this time. The only sound he could hear was the sound of an engine flying upwards.

 _It's true_ , the twelve-year-old thought, _they said aliens._

When Doof arrived back, Vanessa was in the kitchen making herself a peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich. She thought that her dad had once made an Inator of that. Though how she could eat, she didn't know. Then she heard shouting from the lab. He'd brought back more children.

She did her best to ignore it. If she did, maybe it wouldn't hurt her too much. But then she heard a voice she recognised.

Ferb.

Dropping her lunch, she ran into the lab. She saw her dad dragging two wriggling boys by their shirt collars towards the wall. One was Ferb, the other was his brother. Phineas, that was his name. They were digging their feet into the floor and trying to prise Doof's fingers from their collars.

"Dad," Vanessa ran up to him as he reached the wall, "you can't hurt these kids. They're – they're my friends."

Doof ignored her and pushed Phineas onto his stomach. Placing his boot on the boy's back, he used his free hand to pull a chain down and fastened it over Phineas' wrist. Ferb stood still, terrified. He was scared that if he reacted, this man would hurt one or both of them and he had to protect his brother at all costs.

Vanessa watched as Doof then started to do the same to Ferb.

"Dad," Vanessa was now pleading, "I know these boys. Don't hurt them, please!"

But her pleas fell on deaf ears. Doof was now starting up the Inator. "Vanessa, get me a coffee," was the next thing he said.

Vanessa stood where she was, stubbornly refusing to budge.

"Vanessa?" Ferb spoke for the first time, "Are you OK?"

She snapped out of her thoughts and knelt beside him. "I'm fine, Ferb," she reassured him, though she didn't know if that was the truth, "Dad's – gone mental."

"Mental?" Ferb asked, taken aback, "your dad blinded us, locked me in a tin trunk, flew us from our garden and chained us to the wall. That's not mental; that's psychopathic!"

Vanessa was inclined to agree with him.

Candace hadn't seen the fiasco, since she was in the kitchen talking on the phone to Jeremy. He didn't want to answer her call, but he knew she'd tell him off if she did. Honestly, it was as if they were _already_ married, instead of fantasising like she was.

"Candace," he interrupted her when he finally had the chance between her babbling, "do you think you could call me back? I have to work at Slushy Dogs now."

"Yeah. Sure. Goodbye now." Candace shut the phone lid and then looked into the garden. She had plenty of time to talk to him later. She could see Isabella, Buford and Baljeet standing there confused.

"What's going on?" she asked as she came out.

"We can't find Phineas and Ferb," Isabella answered her.

The hairs on the back of Candace's neck flew up and she felt a chill go down her spine that was not caused by the freezing temperatures.

"I don't know!" Candace told the officer as he cordoned off the back yard. She felt like squealing the whole time because of her own stupidity. The others' parents had come and collected them and the police had questioned everyone.

Since this was the first double abduction, police had guessed that their culprit was getting more dangerous. However, it possibly meant that he would likely slip up very soon. Only forty minutes ago a call had come in from the next town over that Lewis and Miriam had been found together in a cold, muddy field by a farmhouse. From what police had managed to decipher, there had also been a woman at the place they had been held, who had been kinder to them. So far, each child had been found safe and well, aside from the shaved heads, the movements reminiscent of post-traumatic stress disorder and pale bodies.

The fact that all the children had been found alive did not calm Candace whatsoever.

"I should have been watching them!" she cried into her mother's shirt, "I was away for thirty-eight seconds. That's how long the police said the call to Jeremy was. And Isabella, Buford and Baljeet were in the yard for about twenty seconds before I was. How can two boys be kidnapped in _eighteen seconds_?"

It was something none of them could answer.

None of them went to bed that night. None of them could sleep.

It gnawed away at all three Flynn-Fletcher family members that even if – no, _when_ – the brothers were found alive, they'd be in the same terrified state that the others had been. Who knew how long this would go on for?

According to the police, Simon Baxter had been gone only two and a half hours, but Mark Frost had been missing three whole days before he was found. This whole disaster had been going on for a week, but it felt as if it had been going on for much longer.

They noticed that Perry hadn't been seen since this happened. Perhaps he'd gone off to pine about it.

Back at Doof's lab, Doof had set up the machine again. The boys had been here for eight hours and aside from Vanessa feeding them twice, neither of them had done anything with the two.

"Right, got that sorted," Doof slapped his hands together, "just a decision on which one first."

He eyed them up. According to Vanessa, the boys were twelve and fourteen. Perhaps fourteen was too old for him, he decided, and may not give much happiness that childhood provided. After all, none of the children he had taken had been older than prepubescent. He wouldn't risk it. He'd take the little boy.

"Well, it's your lucky day," he grinned, standing over Phineas with a creepy chuckle, "Vanessa! Get the razor!"

Vanessa's hand trembled as she hadn't it to her father instead of doing it herself. Hurting children was one thing, but hurting children she knew was going too far.

No, Doof had crossed that line days ago. She just looked away in the direction of the wall. She did her best to ignore Phineas' shouting and her father bellowing at him.

Instead, Vanessa sat down by Ferb and told him, "Close your eyes, Ferb."

"Why?" he asked her.

"Just do it." Vanessa hissed. She glanced back at Phineas. He was already in the barber's chair and Doof was strapping him down. He could only move his head, shaking it from side to side as Doof placed the helmet just above his head.

"What's he doing to Phineas?" Ferb cried, "Let him go!" he shouted at Doof.

Vanessa then grabbed onto Ferb's upper body and buried the boy's head in her chest as it began.

Phineas felt as light as a feather at first, then it felt as if his insides were all squeezed together, then his body yanked from side to side. Then it was as if thousands of tennis balls were hitting him at once and _something_ was being pulled from the top of his head. He knew nothing was being pulled out from his skull, but it certainly _felt_ like that.

He screamed and although he wasn't able to see it, Ferb knew that his brother was in pain.

And he couldn't save him.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

When Phineas was back by the wall, Ferb immediately tried to put his arms around him. But Phineas just pushed away, squealing, his eyes as wide as saucers and scuffling up by the wall, holding his hands over his legs and his knees by his chest.

Vanessa knew she couldn't let this go on any more.

"Dad," she asked, when Doof had gone off to bed, "could you please do something?"

"OK, what? Can't Norm do it?"

"Err, no. He's too big."

He groaned. "What is it, then?"

"Well, don't you think Perry would turn up? Maybe he's watching. In any case, I think you'd better build a trap. You know I'd probably mess it up." Vanessa crossed her fingers.

"Hmm," Doof was thinking, "I guess I should."

As he started to go down the stairs to the basement to get his platypus traps, Vanessa pushed hard. She didn't care if it hurt him so badly he couldn't walk; he'd gone too far. He started screaming and then she shut the door behind her.

Then she remembered that he had the keys to the chains on his belt. Oh. She'd have to get the police. Where had Dad put her cell? She'd last seen it before she knew what he was doing, so he could have thrown it out.

Norm. She had to try and get Norm. He had retreated into his cupboard a week ago and she'd heard him singing folk songs to himself. He could call someone.

Oh, where was Perry when you needed him?

In fact, Perry had just flown to the main doors and was now climbing up the stairs. He knew that Doof _had_ to be behind this. He'd had his suspicions on it perhaps being someone O.W.C.A didn't have an eye on.

But when he'd seen Doof fly away, Perry spent hours trying to reach his entrances to his lair. He'd only just managed it. But now he hoped he wasn't too late.

Creaking the door open a tad, his eyes grew wide when he saw his owners manacled to the wall. Ferb seemed physically OK, he still had all his hair, but Phineas was shivering on the floor.

Perry hated whoever had done this. The fact this was his arch-nemesis just made the whole situation worse and he _knew_ that Doofenshmirtz was breaking the Villain Code by doing this.

Villains all over the world had a simple code – trap the hero, fight, don't kill or don't kill children, depending on what kind of contract you'd signed, explain your plan and then let the hero save people. But this was too far. This was what organized crime members did. Or worse…

Perry was standing by the door to the basement when he heard something behind it. There seemed to be an argument.

"You're doing what!"

"Oh, shut it! I'm sick of L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N and I ripped up my contract, so I can do whatever I want!"

"But you can't hurt children. And Vanessa… _what_ do you have planned for Vanessa?"

"None of your business."

"It _is_ my business! She's my _daughter_!"

Perry stood out of the way as the doors opened. He saw Doof storming out, grumbling to himself. Perry managed to catch him saying, "Just a few more goes on the chair for the kid. He's got more energy than a jet engine."

Perry resisted the urge to strangle Doof. He needed to help his boys by doing something and it couldn't be causing Doof harm. If he did, he might not find out where the boys were, or what Doof was doing to them.

Perry recalled the terrified children from the police reports and grimaced.

Doof unlocked the lab door and strode over to the boys. Ferb was leaning over his brother and trying to soothe him, which proved difficult when Phineas flinched every time something touched him.

As Doof pulled on Phineas' arm, forcing him up, the boy yelled again. He probably didn't know who or what had grabbed hold of him, Ferb noticed, as he wasn't entirely there, but he was screaming blue murder.

"Please," Ferb begged, as he pulled forward as far as his chain would allow, "don't hurt him. Have me."

But Doof didn't look back. "You're too old," was the only thing he said.

Unknown to the three of them, Perry had peeked around the door, careful to avoid any traps that may also reveal his identity to his young owners. He then heard the worst sound he could ever have heard.

Phineas in pain.

Perry closed his eyes and looked away. But then his worry overcame him and he forced himself to look. He saw Phineas strapped down into what resembled a barber's chair with a silver tube above his head. Phineas was struggling against the restraints and his eyes were staring straight ahead.

Ferb was begging Doof to use him instead, to stop hurting Phineas. But Doof was fixated on drawing energy from his test subject.

It was the worst moment of Perry's entire life.

None of the boys' friends had gone to sleep that night. They were waiting anxiously for news. Isabella had used her mom's phone to look up what had happened to the kids that were found and all she could manage to work out was that they were dropped off in areas where hardly anyone would be about. Aside from the park, the kids were either dropped off just outside Danville at the side of the road or just outside nearby towns.

All were scared wrecks and were frightened beyond belief. Isabella didn't want her friends to suffer through that.

She didn't want Phineas to suffer through that.

She didn't want to think about what the boy she loved was going through. She wanted to help him. But she had no clue where he was. He could be anywhere in the Tri-State area. It was likely he hadn't left Danville, due to the close proximity of the sites the children were found.

But she couldn't help thinking of what could be happening.

She skimmed through what the police already knew from the mangled reports from the children. Andrew Webster, aged seven, had said that there had been a pharmacist. Police were checking all pharmacies and people who worked in the medical profession for their alibis.

Ruth Spencer had said that she remembered being held in a cardboard box but that didn't help.

Caroline Goodwin, nine, was pretty sure that there wasn't a vehicle involved, which made things difficult for any possible abductor. Surely there had to be _some_ kind of vehicle, otherwise how would their kidnapper be able to transport them so easily?

Then Isabella remembered all the inventions the boys had made for the previous two years. Maybe somebody had something like that.

She pulled the duvet over her head and closed her eyes. It wouldn't help Phineas if she moped away like this.

Doof was looking at his contents.

The energy provided by the younger boy was definitely huge. He'd drained various amounts from the children he'd kidnapped, some more than others. Perhaps it depended on how happy and active they had been before he abducted them. But this boy had given out a huge burst of energy.

He wanted to use the older boy, but felt as if the boy would put up more of a fight, especially after he'd seen what Doof did to his brother. And it was likely that this child was pubescent, meaning he might have less energy inside. Plus, Vanessa seemed to have a thing for the boy. He didn't want to make her angrier than she already was.

The two boys were now asleep. The younger one had finally stopped whimpering and shivering and the older boy had been lying on the floor with his back to Doof. Maybe now was the best time to take more kids. He still had room on the wall for three more children, after all.

Isabella noticed that purple smoke had appeared in her room when she pulled back the duvet and was about to go to the toilet. Coughing loudly, she closed her eyes tight. She felt herself being picked up, but before she could shout to her mother, she had been thrown into a cardboard box.

Feeling the straw underneath, she felt around and found that the lid had been fastened down. She shouted loudly, banging and kicking, but whoever had carried her out ignored her.

 _Oh no_ , she was thinking, _this is the abductor. The guy who took Phineas._

While she felt a small pang thinking about seeing Phineas again, the absolute terror of being kidnapped was far too much.

Soon, she heard a recognizable voice shouting next to her.

"Buford?" she asked.

"Isabella?" his voice seemed muffled and far away. "You here too?"

"Yeah," she breathed, "I'm in a cardboard box. Can you help me out?"

"Sorry," she heard him answer, "this guy threw me in a cello case. I can see out, though – the latch barely closes."

Buford squinted as he looked around on the craft they were on. He could see a cardboard box next to him, presumably the one Isabella was inside. He could also see a pharmacist standing nearby, piloting. Buford wanted to throttle the guy, but he couldn't even move his arms, let alone get himself free to attack.

A few minutes later, along with a smokescreen and screaming, there was a thump next to Buford. He glimpsed the tin trunk and heard a familiar, squeaky voice say, "That was most unfortunate."

"Baljeet?" Buford asked.

"Buford?" the young Indian asked, "Are you there?"

"Yeah. And I think aliens have taken us." Buford replied.

Isabella spoke. "I don't think it's an alien."

Buford agreed with Isabella for once. "Nah. Aliens don't look like pharmacists."

Meanwhile, Perry had already gone down to the basement. He scanned the area and tried to think of what to do. There was a door hidden behind a bookcase and Perry thought about maybe going inside there.

But as soon as he pulled the bookcase away, his eyes grew as wide as saucers. Doof was lying there, chained to the wall. He looked groggy, thin and weary. As soon as he saw his nemesis, he called out loudly.

"Oh, Perry the Platypus! Thank you! Listen, it's not me up there. It's Rodney. He went crazy because L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N didn't like what he was doing. You see, he was going against his villain contract and he was going nuts. I don't know what it was, maybe he went power-hungry. But since _my_ record is the most squeaky-clean – oh, don't look at me like that, Perry the Platypus – he locked me down here and he used my new Inator to hurt children! And don't even get me started on what I think he plans for Vanessa."

Perry paused for a moment. He was thinking this through in his head. Was this a trap? Was Doof really here? Was he telling the truth?

Meanwhile, Rodney had arrived back with his three new captives. Isabella had shrieked when she saw the state Phineas was in and tried to hug him.

But as soon as she did, Phineas quivered and shrank away from her. It broke her heart not to hold him close.

Baljeet seemed more interested in how exactly this machine worked, analysing it at earnest, even as Rodney chained him to the wall.

"It's always the little details with you, isn't it?" Buford asked.

"Well, technically I see a lot of stuff every day and I try to figure scientific answers for –"

"I was being sarcastic, Baljeet!" Buford groaned.

After cutting his new captives' hair (aside from Buford, as Rodney decided on second glance that he was too much trouble, at his age and muscular tone) Rodney had the machine charged up. The noise sent Phineas pushing himself up by the wall, murmuring and shaking.

Isabella had never seen him so pale and wondered what this – this _monster_ – had done to him.

Ferb just looked forlornly at the door, waiting for Vanessa. Whatever she was doing, he just hoped it was going to help them get out of there.

Rodney left the laboratory and went into Vanessa's room.

"Dad, could you please knock?" Vanessa asked, shutting the drawer underneath her bed as she got up.

But Rodney – still dressed as Doof – smiled at her. It wasn't a kind smile; it looked more like a lion ready to pounce. "Vanessa, what size are you?" he asked, trying to sound happy.

Vanessa raised an eyebrow. "I-I'm not sure, Dad. Look, what is it now?"

"Oh, nothing. It's just that – well – I'm trying to find you the perfect dress for when I become mayor of the Tri-State Area. I need one for the ceremony."

"Don't you still have the Ballgown-Inator?" Vanessa smarmily asked.

Rodney seemed confused for a moment. "Err – no, I think Perry the Platypus destroyed it. Anyway, I need one for my new mayoress – oops."

Rodney stopped in his tracks as Vanessa stared at him with confusion and horror.

"Dad, what – what are you – what do you –"

"Well, no use putting it off now," Rodney grabbed the door handle with one quick swoop, "it's just that when I rule the Tri-State Area, I want you to be my bride."

Vanessa wanted to throw up, claw his face and push him down the stairs all at once. But as she ran to the door to lunge, Rodney had already shut the door and locked it.

Vanessa pulled at it hopelessly, before she called out, "Let me out, you maniac!"

But Rodney placed the key inside his pocket and patted it.

"You're staying in there until the ceremony, Vanessa. I'll get Norm to help me."

As he walked back to the laboratory, Vanessa heard Norm exclaim, "I'm useful!"

When Perry had finally freed Doof, the mad scientist had immediately run upstairs. Going to Vanessa's room, Doof knocked slowly.

"Vanessa?" he whispered, just in case Rodney heard him, "Vanessa?"

Then he stood up straight. "Well, Perry the Platypus, I don't think she –"

Then he saw his nemesis run up and kick the door down. "Oh, okay, that works, too."

Doof peeked inside. The window was open and Vanessa's bedsheets were tied to her unhooked curtains, hanging out of the window. A bit of a cliché method, Perry thought, but tried and true.

"Vanessa?" Doof called cautiously, "You there?"

Vanessa had leapt onto the balcony of one of the abandoned apartments and was now running down the stairs. She needed help. She needed help _fast_.

She wondered whether Candace was home. Vanessa didn't really want to get the girl, but as she had no idea how to get Perry, this was the next best option.

Candace was in her room, lying on her side on the bed. She had already littered the room with used tissues and was moping as he held her Ducky Momo toy she had salvaged from the attic.

She felt as if she had failed. Who knew what her little brothers were going through? And when they came back (they _would_ , Candace told herself, they've all come back) they would be in a post-traumatic state.

She hadn't heard about the disappearances of the other three yet. Mrs Garcia-Sharpiro hadn't gone into her daughter's room yet and Baljeet's parents had only just gone to the police. Buford's parents didn't really care and hadn't gone into his room, which was really rather sad.

But when she heard someone calling her name outside and saw Vanessa, she saw the girl looked terrified. Candace groaned and opened the window, but she definitely wasn't prepared for what happened next.


	4. Chapter 4

Rodney was enjoying himself thoroughly.

He'd spent three months planning this job, ever since L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N tore up his contract. He'd used the last of his money that he had from the organization to get parts for the Inator (he _still_ preferred the term Inizer) and took out the rest from his bank account. He had undertaken plastic surgery, had his spine altered so that he hunched over and set up cameras in Doof's apartment to learn how to imitate his speech and movement.

He thought as he had examined Vanessa one day that, well, she was legal now and he'd seen her grow up into a beautiful young woman. She'd be his when he controlled the Tri-State Area. Stealing Doof's goal and his daughter would be the cherry on top of the icing on the cake.

He'd pack away the energy soon and use it to be on top of form, like the mayor was. Pretending to be Doof and taking everything of happiness away from the Tri-State Area would be just as he wanted it.

He didn't care about the kids he had with him now. The little red-haired boy was so weak he looked as if he may slip into a coma. But as long as every bit of joy and wonder of being a child was sucked out of him, Rodney didn't care.

He'd dump the kids in a field near Danville soon. And he'd make sure they wouldn't tell. The ones he'd used to take energy from wouldn't recall much anyway, but the two big boys weren't affected and may tell.

Well, Rodney had a plan for that. He was going to threaten them. Show that he meant it. Rodney planned to cut out their tongues and say they – and the other three – would suffer much worse if they ever told anyone about what happened.

While Rodney was deciding all of this, Vanessa and Candace arrived at the door of the building.

Candace asked her, "This isn't going to take long, is it? I just want to get my brothers home. My parents are going crazy."

"It'll be fine," Vanessa told her, but she was trying to reassure herself more than anything else.

As the two young women entered the lobby, they saw Doof coming down the stairs. Perry was behind him, but darted back around when he saw Candace.

"Vanessa!" Doof held out his arms and ran towards her.

Vanessa shouted, "Candace! Upstairs! Now!"

As Candace darted upstairs, not even noticing Perry (but then again, she didn't notice anything else when her mind was set on her brothers), while Vanessa punched Doof in the jaw.

He let out a string of foreign swear words, then held his hand against where Vanessa had punched him.

"What was that for?" he shouted, as Vanessa lunged again. "Not the face!"

Perry looked at the two of them, now wrestling on the floor. Vanessa had torn at Doof's face with her nails, kicked him and was now strangling her. Her eyes were wild and determined and Doof looked absolutely terrified.

Perry leapt beside them and Vanessa glanced at him. "Perry! Where were you?" she asked, still strangling Doof.

Doof managed to splutter, "Vanessa, it wasn't me! It was Rodney!"

Vanessa had no idea what he was saying, but her eyes flickered over to Perry. Not for the first time, Perry wished he could talk as he nodded at her.

Vanessa let go slightly and stepped backwards. Doof stood up, gripping the bannister for support.

"It's true," he gasped, rubbing his throat, "Rodney locked me up at Christmas and he's been impersonating me. Did you _seriously_ think I would do all of that? To innocent children? To _you_?"

Vanessa stood where she was, overwhelmed. She wanted to cry and scream and hold her father like she thought she never would again.

Perry looked between the two of them, feeling like the third wheel. If it hadn't been for him, Vanessa would probably have _murdered_ Doof and wouldn't even have felt that bad for it. And they still needed to save the children.

They had to go fast. Perry knew that Candace was no match for Rodney.

Perry chattered his teeth and the two of them turned to look at him.

"Oh, yeah," Doof muttered as the three of them ran simultaneously up the stairs.

Candace had already got to the laboratory and had noticed the door was open. Ducking down onto her hands and knees, she glanced at the wall where the children were.

She felt like screaming when she saw Phineas and Ferb. Phineas was in a state and lying on his side, his eyes wide and unfocused. Isabella and Baljeet were also acting little funny, with Isabella's eye twitching as she sat against the wall and Baljeet saying mathematical equations to himself. Buford and Ferb seemed unhurt, but Buford seemed unnaturally afraid and Ferb was looking at Phineas but not holding him, as if frightened to touch him.

Candace crawled inside, but almost as soon as she did, she felt someone grab her by the hair. She screamed aloud and that caused everyone – even petrified Phineas – to look in her direction.

Rodney snarled, "Really? That was a very stupid thing to do. Oh well, down the garbage chute."

He started dragging Candace, one hand tearing her hair out and one hand on her arm, as she dug her heels into the floor and started screaming and hitting him.

The door swung open just as Rodney was trying to place Candace inside the garbage hatch. It wouldn't have been so bad if Rodney hadn't randomly placed knives inside of it.

"What? There's two of you?" Candace asked as she saw Doof there.

"Game's over, Rodney." Vanessa glared at him with upmost disgust as she stepped forward. "Let my friends go."

Perry, of course, was standing outside the door, contacting Major Monogram.

Rodney instead smiled and threw Candace's head against the metal wall as he stepped forward, causing her to lose a few teeth and groan in agony. "All right, Doof," he spoke in his natural voice for the first time in days, "let me see. No."

Then Doof started growling furiously and lunged at him. The two scientists wrestled and let papers, equipment and Norm's plate of cupcakes fly around the laboratory as they engaged in a fight.

Vanessa froze. She'd lost track of them. _Oh Dad_ , she thought, _why couldn't you have changed into something else? I wouldn't even have minded those stupid pyjamas with my face on_.

Then she had an idea.

Ferb sat watching the spectacle unfold and spoke for the first time that day, which was not unusual for him under normal circumstances, to be frank.

"I certainly did not expect it to end like this."

Then Vanessa opened a cupboard and pulled out of one Doof's many Inators.

"Vanessa, what are you doing with that?" he asked as Rodney tried to shove Doof's hand off of his face.

Vanessa smirked. "I hope you think I'm putting it down. But I'm not, Dad."

The Make-Broccoli-Into-Cake-Inator was then thrown up into the air. From outside the door, Perry shot at it with a plunger and it hit the self-destruct button.

As Vanessa stood in front of the children, blocking their view of the door with a photocopier (for plastering posters for a 'Vote for Me' campaign all over the Tri-State Area), not sure why Perry had asked this, the door opened.

Doof frowned and cried out, "Curse you, Perry the Platypus!"

Vanessa ran ahead and embraced him for the second time in ten minutes. "Oh, Dad!" she cried, as Norm came up and grabbed the two scientists by the necks.

"Hey, Vanessa!" her father cried, as Vanessa shrugged.

"Just making sure."

The giant robot whirred his head as he took readings and held Doof up a little higher. "This one's Dr. Doofenschmirtz!" he cheerfully announced, letting him fall six feet onto the floor," And this one's the imposter!"

He threw Rodney out over the balcony. As Rodney grabbed it, Doof and Vanessa walked over and looked over the edge.

"Why did you do this, Rodney?" Doof asked him.

Rodney replied, "To be honest, I didn't think this far ahead."

Then he went pale.

"Oops."

As his fingers slipped, Vanessa looked away and buried her head into her dad's chest.

When they'd heard a loud thud on the ground, Vanessa told Doof, "I think we'd better get the kids home."

When Linda and Lawrence were woken by the police, they were ecstatic to hear that the boys were all right and were currently in the hospital. As were Isabella's mother and Baljeet's parents. Buford's parents, of course, didn't even care.

As Perry stood on a stool and peered into the window, he saw his masters lying motionless on hospital beds. The news was that they would be fine, but both of them would need therapy.

Especially Phineas.

Perry didn't want to think about the agony that they had been through, but as he closed his eyes and got down from the stool, all he wished for was for them to make a speedy recovery.

And to be home.

For _all_ the victims – Doof and Vanessa included – to be safe.


End file.
